20 December 2011

All the pictures this week are related to my work and show people from the office where I work. This being the last full week before Christmas (we are closed between December 23 and January 2), it was the week of the mercado solidario, where various charitable organizations set up stands in our lobby and peddle their stuff to raise funds. It was also the week of the 13th annual Christmas pub quiz organized by two evil quizmasters from England and Scotland, respectively, and the official office Christmas party held this year at the office itself rather than at some fancy place in the city–in the spirit of the crisis the office decided to have a low-key party in-house and donate the considerable savings to local charities.

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A Spanish tradition of the season is the cesta de navidad (literally, Christmas basket), the main component of which is the ham. Here is our Dutch colleague Caroline selling lottery tickets for Friday’s party, during which three such baskets would be awarded to the lucky winners:

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Viviana is Romanian. Here she tries on a hat at one of the solidarity stands:

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Tuesday night we had the Christmas quiz at a bar called The Place. This is not an official office event, but it is organized by Thom and Mark, two Brits (Thom is English, Mark is Scottish) who have now organized this magnificent event 13 years in a row. This year the quizmasters were extra evil, especially Thom (pictured here) who had come up with music question where you had to identify the bass player based on 8 snippets of songs. Other types of questions included gems such as “what was the world’s largest island before Greenland was discovered?” with the obvious answer being “Greenland” since it existed also before the Vikings landed there. And so on:

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Since our office has employees from all 27 EU countries, the teams at the quiz were mostly along national lines. Here is the Swedish team, with Magnus in deep concentration (or else he is just getting drunk):

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The quiz has certain rules, for example men must wear red socks, everyone must wear a hat while the questions are being asked, and every table must contain Christmassy decorations as well as fruits and vegetables. Here is one team’s interpretation:

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Elvis showed up too, disguised as Victor, the proprietor of Bodega Adolfo in Benalua:

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The quiz has ended, and members of the Polish team bid each other farewell Elvis gets a smooch too. They had a successful quiz, coming in second among the 12 teams:

Then, on Friday, we had the official Christmas party at the office. A low-key affair, lasting from 5:30 to 9 pm.

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Our sweet Beatrice, whose growing belly I have been documenting in recent months, gave birth on December 9th and came to the party to show off her baby. As always on such occasions, maternal instincts were much in evidence:

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This is the object of all that admiration, little Matilda:

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Older children were there too. This is Mikhail from Bulgaria horsing around with his daughter:

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The general setting:

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Claire and Sabina share Iberian ham and a laugh:

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Inge (German) and Caroline (Dutch), with Ann (French or English, I am never quite sure) in the background:

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To finish off the week, this is Friday’s sunset as seen from my office window: